Despite the inclement weather, Google was still able to announce the new LG-made Nexus 4 handset yesterday, and like the Optimus G on which it is based, this new phone should be quite speedy. Both phones use a 1.5GHz quad-core version of Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 Pro (part number APQ8064) paired with an Adreno 320 GPU. To put that in context, the dual-core versions of the S4 routinely match or beat the quad-core Tegra 3 and Exynos 4 from NVIDIA and Samsung, respectively, so the quad-core version of the chip should be a real monster.

To explore just how fast the new Nexus phone will be, I asked our own Florence Ion to send me the benchmark results from the LG Optimus G she's currently reviewing. While there will be some subtle differences between the performance of the two phones—the Nexus is running Android 4.2, for example, while the Optimus G is still stuck on 4.0.4 for the time being—looking at how its non-Nexus cousin runs is going to tell us a lot about the latest Google-branded phone and whether it can stand up to the competition on both the iOS and Android sides of the fence.

Let's dive right into the benchmarks to see just what kind of performance these phones will be able to deliver.

The CPU

In the Sunspider test, the quad-core Snapdragon handily beats the other Android devices in the lineup and the A5X in Apple's third-generation iPad (and, by extension, the A5 chips in the iPad 2, iPad mini, iPhone 4S, and iPod touch). The combination of the A6 and mobile Safari's generally faster JavaScript engine help the iPhone 5 stay ahead, though. The story is slightly different for the Google Octane test, where the Optimus G bests the iPhone 5 but can't outscore the dual-core Snapdragon in the Galaxy SIII, possibly a sign that the Optimus G's extra CPU cores are going unused.

Moving on to our other CPU tests, Geekbench shows the Optimus G pulling ahead of the dual-core A5 in the number-crunching integer and floating point benchmarks but falling behind in the memory bandwidth tests. Memory bandwidth has long been a bottleneck for ARM chips (particularly those using Cortex A9 CPU cores, as we can see in the low iPad 3 and Nexus 7 scores), and its high memory and stream scores are probably what's helping the iPhone 5 outscore the competition in Linpack by such a ridiculous margin (the Optimus G can't beat the iPhone 5 here, but it does clobber the older Android devices).

The GPU

The quad-core version of the S4 also includes a beefed up Adreno 320 GPU, and its results are less ambiguous than our CPU tests—after years of playing second fiddle to the graphics performance in iOS devices, Android is beginning to catch up. In the GLBenchmark offscreen tests, which render the same scene at 1080p on all GPUs to put them on even footing, the Optimus G keeps pace with the A6 and A5X in the Egypt HD test but falls behind in the older Egypt Classic test. As we can see in the onscreen test, however, this discrepancy shouldn't affect games too much when played on the phone's 1280×768 display.

Conclusions

The Nexus 4 will wipe the floor with the Galaxy SIII and Nexus 7 in both CPU and GPU performance, and while it doesn't always beat the Apple A6 in the iPhone 5, it's always very close in synthetic benchmarks. Between the two, the iPhone's dual-core A6 may have the advantage in real-world performance, since not all apps will be able to take advantage of all four of the Snapdragon's CPU cores, but we need more real-world comparison time to say for certain. If you can get past the lack of LTE, the Nexus 4 (and by extension the Optimus G, which will give you LTE but take away the Nexus line's guaranteed updates) is easily the fastest Android handset you can buy today. Look for our full review of both the Nexus 4 and Optimus G in the coming weeks.

The GPU performance in particular is a good sign for Android devices—taken with the Nexus 10 tablet, which ships with a powerful Cortex A15-based Exynos 5 chip and a quad-core GPU, it shows an Android ecosystem that is finally beginning to take graphics performance as seriously as Apple's devices do. Expect our review of the Nexus 10 to go up next week, if Hurricane Sandy doesn't get in the way.

Andrew Cunningham
Andrew has a B.A. in Classics from Kenyon College and has over five years of experience in IT. His work has appeared on Charge Shot!!! and AnandTech, and he records a weekly book podcast called Overdue. Twitter@AndrewWrites

I feel the same way. I should have waited a few months and get this instead of SGS3. Wouldn't have a contract right now. For my usage like emails, light browsing and IMs, LTE is worthless. Only thing I'd miss is the 64gb SD card in my SGS3.

…while it doesn't always beat the Apple A6 in the iPhone 5, it's always very close in synthetic benchmarks.

I'm personally working on code that does Linpack-type math but doubt that even 0.01% of handsets' cycles go to Gaussian elimination with partial pivoting. And I'm led to understand that in games, especially 3D work, graphics libraries necessarily highly-tuned to GPU-specific capabilities and are unlikely to rely on ordinary floating-point math.

So I'd sure enjoy seeing thoughts about which user interactions will be smoother, which games will be more enjoyable with this extra horsepower.

How many apps will automatically rearrange their code paths for the extra cores, and how many will be manually tuned to run on this device?

I'm really interested in seeing how close Krait is to the real A15 once we get our hands on some benchmarks from the Nexus 10.

Benchmarking-wise, most benches will be slightly to greatly higher on the actual Nexus 4 due to Android 4.2. 4.1 brought some small *real* optimizations from what I've seen elsewhere, giving slight bumps in things like Geekbench. The great "gains" will be in Sunspider and other JS benchmarks, as it seems that they are now an optimization target for the OS and browser producers. Real world usage will probably be a good bit better on the Nexus 4, between Google Now and the increased smoothness, as long as the Optimus G doesn't have 4.1. Besides, relying on LG to update your phone ever is just asking for disappointment

Is there a reason why Google has decided not to include LTE? Even Apple caved to the 4G bubble.

I will also say that yes, LTE is a noticeable improvement in that I don't notice it. I can't tell when I am browsing the web via Wifi or LTE.

Andy Rubin talked to the Verge about this a little bit, and Android police has an article taking the points about LTE from the Verge's piece and examining them a bit. Find the article here. The quick answer is simply price (and a bit of battery life). It's more expensive equipment, partly because paying for patents on LTE is expensive.

Holy crap...the iPad 3 really took a nut shot from each of the phones. I had no idea that its processor was that far behind the pack. Hmmm. I was thinking about getting one...maybe I'd be better off waiting. Well, learn something new everyday I guess.

Holy crap...the iPad 3 really took a nut shot from each of the phones. I had no idea that its processor was that far behind the pack. Hmmm. I was thinking about getting one...maybe I'd be better off waiting. Well, learn something new everyday I guess.

Maybe that's why they just speed bumped the Retina iPad to be the new new iPad.

Holy crap...the iPad 3 really took a nut shot from each of the phones. I had no idea that its processor was that far behind the pack. Hmmm. I was thinking about getting one...maybe I'd be better off waiting. Well, learn something new everyday I guess.

Now you know why Apple released the iPad 4, and stopped offering the iPad 3.

Holy crap...the iPad 3 really took a nut shot from each of the phones. I had no idea that its processor was that far behind the pack. Hmmm. I was thinking about getting one...maybe I'd be better off waiting. Well, learn something new everyday I guess.

Cant buy the ipad3 anymore (new). The updated ipad (4?) is twice as fast as the 3.

"it shows an Android ecosystem that is finally beginning to take graphics performance as seriously as Apple's devices do."

Was it ever the case that Android didn't care about gfx performance? I thought the large gap was all a result of Apple catching the rest of the ARM SoC ecosystem flatfooted by going with a much larger GPU than anyone else had in the pipeline for their mobile chips and that this is just (one of?) the first phones using an SoC designed in reaction to it.

The problem with comparing it to Samsung Galaxy S3, is you're comparing it to the US version, not the International version, which is already a Quad-Core. Any chance we can compare it to that version as well?

Wow, these are impressive results, and the price is absurdly good. I love my Galaxy Nexus, though, and I'll just stick with it for the present.

Between the Nexus 4 and Nexus 10 Google has compelling offerings with much better performance and feature/price ratios than anything apple is offering.

The real shame is that the reality distortion field pretty much guarantees people will continue shoving money down Apple's throat while the nexus devices will be niche products in spite of their superior price/performance ratio.

I'm sort of confused by the graphs - I don't see the Nexus 4 in the key, is it mislabeled or just missing?

They are using the Optimus G, same SoC as the Nexus 4. Though it's running 4.0.4, not 4.2.

With the different versions of the OS, how realistic is it to test the Optimus G and apply the same results to the Nexus 4?

Shouldn't the Nexus 4 be faster? (I'm thinking of "Project Butter" in particular) or does the OS not have any significant impact?

The browser benchmark scores will definitely increase with a move to Jellybean - probably to at least a parity with the iphone5. The rest of the scores I doubt will see a great improvement in scores, but there's no doubt that this phone with Android 4.2 will be a monster from a UI responsiveness standpoint. My year old Galaxy Nexus which is far from competing with even the Galaxy S3 is already extremely quick and responsive running Jellybean.

The Nexus 4 will definitely be the best phone on the market until the next major flagship refresh (Galaxy S4/HTC's One followup/iphone6) and probably will still be the best in some aspects after that until the followup Nexus phone is released.

Is there a reason why Google has decided not to include LTE? Even Apple caved to the 4G bubble.

I will also say that yes, LTE is a noticeable improvement in that I don't notice it. I can't tell when I am browsing the web via Wifi or LTE.

There is a nice explanation on android central I think about why LTE is not in the phone. I for one could not give a hoot about LTE or no LTE. Coverage blows on most carriers. HSPA+ is fast enough. And wireless is nearly everywhere. But the explanation involved around costs mainly and that makes me happy. All that hardware for 350 and no contract and unlocked some sacrifices had to be made and I am glad LTE went first. Also LTE still is a bit iffy with battery life. All in all I am ordering one of each...phone and tablet. Go Google!

Holy crap...the iPad 3 really took a nut shot from each of the phones. I had no idea that its processor was that far behind the pack. Hmmm. I was thinking about getting one...maybe I'd be better off waiting. Well, learn something new everyday I guess.

Now you know why Apple released the iPad 4, and stopped offering the iPad 3.

Wow, these are impressive results, and the price is absurdly good. I love my Galaxy Nexus, though, and I'll just stick with it for the present.

Between the Nexus 4 and Nexus 10 Google has compelling offerings with much better performance and feature/price ratios than anything apple is offering.

The real shame is that the reality distortion field pretty much guarantees people will continue shoving money down Apple's throat while the nexus devices will be niche products in spite of their superior price/performance ratio.

In the end, no one cares about benchmarks. They care about whether they can get that cool new app their neighbor just bought on their iPhone 5. Google Play still hasn't caught up to the app store. It's getting better, and so is the android OS as a whole, but the Play store isn't quite there yet.

I will say that I think with Jelly Bean, Android has caught up to or surpassed iOS. When I bought my SGS2, it was running Gingerbread, and Gingerbread was pretty awful. It was slow and painful to use. With ICS and now JB, I'm beginning to like my phone more and more every day (even though I had to root to get JB).

Was it ever the case that Android didn't care about gfx performance? I thought the large gap was all a result of Apple catching the rest of the ARM SoC ecosystem flatfooted by going with a much larger GPU than anyone else had in the pipeline for their mobile chips and that this is just (one of?) the first phones using an SoC designed in reaction to it.

Not sure. It was definitely the case that Android placed little emphasis on having a smooth UI in terms of how its designed (http://www.netmagazine.com/news/android ... ned-111619) and instead chose to wait for faster hardware to eventually come and fix everything. That does suggest that at least some in the Android community don't really care about the graphics/UI side of it.

Is there a reason why Google has decided not to include LTE? Even Apple caved to the 4G bubble.

I will also say that yes, LTE is a noticeable improvement in that I don't notice it. I can't tell when I am browsing the web via Wifi or LTE.

There is a nice explanation on android central I think about why LTE is not in the phone. I for one could not give a hoot about LTE or no LTE. Coverage blows on most carriers. HSPA+ is fast enough. And wireless is nearly everywhere. But the explanation involved around costs mainly and that makes me happy. All that hardware for 350 and no contract and unlocked some sacrifices had to be made and I am glad LTE went first. Also LTE still is a bit iffy with battery life. All in all I am ordering one of each...phone and tablet. Go Google!

It's funny to me how much flack Apple got for not putting LTE in the iPhone 4S, for basically the same reasons. But for Google? Now the exact same reasoning is fine (battery, price, availability) a year later.

You still have to pay for service for the phone, so how much money are you really saving? It's nice to be able to leave if you want, but how likely is anyone to do that?

For the record, I like LTE. It's wicked fast and a couple of seconds saved here and there begin to add up.

I find it quite interesting that these stats are published. The public at large has shown time and time again that these statistics don't influence the purchase decision...

There was a time when statistics made sense, at the beginning of the age of computers, more raw computing power meant a far better overall experience. But it has been a while that this is not the case anymore. We (architecture practice) HAD to rely on the "Pro" machines to get our jobs done. Nowadays, almost every "consumer grade" computer can run the most recent version of the software, create 3D images and so on. Only a few professionals (compared to 10 years ago) HAVE to rely on the best pro machines.

So is the case in the mobile market, only that this one moved faster towards the point where statistics are irrelevant. Companies (yep, not ONLY apple but many others) have shown that users cherish the overall experience and don't care about statistics. Phones will eventually get more and more powerful, all of them. But the user experience is not as radically different from one device to the other as it was for the PC. And, oddly enough, the software (or apps, you call them how you want) are meant to run on ALL DEVICES across the board. Basically there is no app that requires (a minimum of X amount of ram and a Y processor). So developers tent to develop for the least common denominator, and step up requirements very slowly over time, usually taking advantage of the OSs capabilities more than the HW ones (requires Android X.Y or iOS X.Y or Windows X.Y, more than HW specs).

So, in my humble opinion, stats are just a matter that allows to have the "feeling" of being able to draw a comparison but in reality don't provide any information about the user experience and the feeling overall. Case in point? Remember when Samsung analyzed iOS?

There was one thing that struck me. The time for the Samsung phone to open the camera app was, in fact, shorter than the one on iOS. But iOS showed the animation of a camera opening, hence conveying the feeling it was, in fact faster. Samsung then suggested to add a similar animation concept to their opening of the camera app. I don't mean to say "faster" is never better. But the overall experience is the true measure. Yet it is so utterly subjective that it is difficult to try to analyze it.

I suggest to read the document where Samsung basically takes apart the iOS user experience. This analysis, regardless of the outcome of any lawsuit, shows how much more comes into play in the overall experience.

And consumers consistently show they look at much more than power, to the point that power has become irrelevant.- looks- fashion- partisanship- price- customizability- hackability- sense of belonging

All these trump stats all the time. And more and more this happens to computers as well, where power has increased to a point that it is no longer determining in the user experience and other factors come into play (retina display...).

In the end, no one cares about benchmarks. They care about whether they can get that cool new app their neighbor just bought on their iPhone 5. Google Play still hasn't caught up to the app store. It's getting better, and so is the android OS as a whole, but the Play store isn't quite there yet.

I will say that I think with Jelly Bean, Android has caught up to or surpassed iOS. When I bought my SGS2, it was running Gingerbread, and Gingerbread was pretty awful. It was slow and painful to use. With ICS and now JB, I'm beginning to like my phone more and more every day (even though I had to root to get JB).

No doubt what you can do with the device is the most important thing. I think you (and it's a common sentiment) are really overestimating iOS's application lead. I'm sure there are plenty of applications that you can't get on Android that you can get on iOS, but for the basic device functionality, the things that most people will be using the device for the majority of the time, Android has the market as well covered as Apple does, from what I've seen. Plenty of browser choices, social media apps are built in, and you can get all the rovio games on Android.

The LTE thing is weird... I could purchase a Nexus with LTE from Europe and it would work over here, but I can not get an unlocked nexus over here that works on LTE... Obviously there is some carrier involvement with this...

One thing to note about the Adreno that isn't well known. Solutions like PowerVR and Mali will wipe the floor with Adreno in fill-rate limited tasks (ie. simple shaders), but Adreno has very strong shading units and is much less sensitive to shader complexity. This is shown in the Egypt HD 2.5 Offscreen test, where the Adreno 320 pulls ahead despite lower scores in classic. In fact, the Adreno 205 (the gpu in the now ancient Xperia play and HTC thunderbolt) actually exceeds the throughput of the iPad3 for the 1080p offscreen test!

Another advantage that the Adreno has is full profile OpenCL 1.1 compliance, and OpenGL ES 3 compliance. These APIs will play a much larger role in the coming year, but I fully expect that significant development will only occur when they have been established by OSs.

That aside, this victory will be short lived as the Mali T6xx and the PowerVR Series 6 GPUs are set to come out and once again take the lead in terms of graphics performance especially as they shrink to 28nm processes.

I find it quite interesting that these stats are published. The public at large has shown time and time again that these statistics don't influence the purchase decision...

There was a time when statistics made sense, at the beginning of the age of computers, more raw computing power meant a far better overall experience. ..snip..

Well for one this is Ars, a geek website, and geeks want to know what kind of cpu they are paying for. Regular consumers don't care, but then they are not reading Ars.

Secondly the reason we should care about smartphone spec is for multitasking. Individual app performance is fine, but as smartphones get more cpu and RAM we can use more than one app at a time (just like we do now with desktop OSs). Assuming of course iOS and Android allow us the privilege...

This comparison is flawed, the Optimus G is not a good indicator of Nexus 4 performance.The guys at gsmarena ran some tests and concluded that while Optimus G has the hardware to soundly beat the SGSIII, yet they end up about evenly matched - thus Optimus G is severely hindered by software. Nexus 4 on the other hand, should be purely Android; can't wait for real benchmarks.

Just my own 2 cents here, but, I recently had a chance to play around with a friends S3 (I have an iPhone 4S and wife has 5), I found it cheap feeling, both software and hardware. Android felt sluggish and flickery and very messy. Granted, I think my pal has tweeked a bunch of stuff and there was probably a lot of background crap running on it, but in general, I was not impressed. I expected more, especially from all the hype I read around here.

Anyway, I was surprised. And especially so after using the iPhone 5, it is clear Apple is still ahead of the curve here. I just don't see folks (not the more capable, geeky, hacker types, but the general populace) being as attached to Android products. You know, Android feels like it's Linux, now that I think of it. Great tool, but more is expected of the user in general.

I still think the Apple hardware and software is much more refined, beautiful, and ultimately functional.

From a pure performance aspect these benchmarks also seem to support this feeling.

Interestingly, this is different from the experience I had with a Win7 phone a year ago, which left me pleasantly surprised and mildly impressed. I think if MS can keep moving along, they will have a more compelling alternative to Android, and maybe compete even with Apple.

I think you (and it's a common sentiment) are really overestimating iOS's application lead....Android has the market as well covered as Apple does, from what I've seen. Plenty of browser choices, social media apps are built in, and you can get all the rovio games on Android.

I hate that Apple and iOS aficionados talk up the number of apps angle. I've been a Mac user for 10 years now and have been on the opposite end of that argument. My response is the same as yours: OSX does not have the quantity of applications Windows does, but I've never found a task I wanted to attempt that didn't have software available for it.

I think you (and it's a common sentiment) are really overestimating iOS's application lead....Android has the market as well covered as Apple does, from what I've seen. Plenty of browser choices, social media apps are built in, and you can get all the rovio games on Android.

I hate that Apple and iOS aficionados talk up the number of apps angle. I've been a Mac user for 10 years now and have been on the opposite end of that argument. My response is the same as yours: OSX does not have the quantity of applications Windows does, but I've never found a task I wanted to attempt that didn't have software available for it.

Is there a reason why Google has decided not to include LTE? Even Apple caved to the 4G bubble.

I will also say that yes, LTE is a noticeable improvement in that I don't notice it. I can't tell when I am browsing the web via Wifi or LTE.

Honestly if the iPhone 5 didn't have LTE the spam fandroid posts would have been never ending about how Apple don't have this feature or that feature.

LTE wasn't a buying point for my iPhone 5 and wouldn't be a buying point if I was picking up a rather nice looking Nexus 4, in the same way that NFC isn't a buying point for me but I wouldn't say no if the iPhone 5 had come with it.

I feel the same way. I should have waited a few months and get this instead of SGS3. Wouldn't have a contract right now. For my usage like emails, light browsing and IMs, LTE is worthless. Only thing I'd miss is the 64gb SD card in my SGS3.

I'd like to understand that lack of LTE and an SD bay of the Nexus 4. Those are some of the many reasons I chose the Galaxy Nexus as a purchase. There has to be a better reason than battery life and cost. Is this just further proof that LG has issues? Honest question.

The only good thing I can say about the one LG phone I ever owed was that I couldn't kill the damn thing. The software was crap, but hardware wise the little bastard was sturdy.

Just my own 2 cents here, but, I recently had a chance to play around with a friends S3 (I have an iPhone 4S and wife has 5), I found it cheap feeling, both software and hardware. Android felt sluggish and flickery and very messy. Granted, I think my pal has tweeked a bunch of stuff and there was probably a lot of background crap running on it, but in general, I was not impressed. I expected more, especially from all the hype I read around here.

I think this is a very good point, and one of the most compelling differentiators between different products, and an oft mention justification in price differences between devices. While stock Android is (IMO) far less chaotic than something like the Galaxy S3 with its numerous features and gimmicks, there are aspects of the system and its representative applications that are still sub-par in the face of a glitch-free UX.

Thankfully, Android has seen tremendous gains since the focus on UX has been instantiated, through a de-cluttering of the interface and also improvements in performance. The application library has also grown in both size, scope, and quality. This is not an apology for the state of Android, but an assertion that things are indeed trending towards higher quality. As a proud Android user, I am not really worried about the UX as it seems to improve (at least marginally) week over week. The Nexus program guarantees that Nexus owners will see these changes.

Some other aspects of the OS, namely app-to-app interoperability, multi-device applications, homescreen widgets, rich notifications, and backgrounded services, give it a usability edge against competing platforms in terms of functionality.

But I suspect in its current state, android is 'good enough', offers compelling price points and companies that can market and sell handsets well which is probably reason for its mass success.